The Teachers make an impact in first week

The trekkers have just completed their first week of a two month teaching placement in the Cayo district of Belize. Their tasks and responsibilities have been wide reaching from taking full classes of 6 year olds, running an hour's PT lesson in the morning, helping the less able children with their reading skills, or helping out at the regional girl's football tournament in San Ignacio.

Kieran and Alex in Duck Run Two found themselves both teaching a lesson on fractions, to separate age groups. Kieran recalls "It was easier for Alex as he had an older group who had a grasp of the idea, whereas I had a younger age group and found it a bit more challenging".

The guys have already been involved with the local community during their first week, as Alex says, "There's a football pitch across from our school and we've found ourselves there every night training with the local team".

Lily, along with her teaching buddies Sophie and Synnove in El Progresso, have found their placements so far to be a real cultural eye opener. She says, "We don't have electricity at our homestay, there's 50 chickens in the garden and it's really hot! This morning we got up at 5:30am to go for a run and when we came back we did some sit-ups and the family's children were looking at us as if we're mad!"


Lily is also going to try to undergo some fundraising, as she says there are a lot of projects that the school wants to accomplish, but it is all hampered by the constraints of funding. She has also been running practice sessions on playing the tin whistle, which she has brought over from her native Ireland, and hopes that the children will be up to scratch before their Mother's Day performance this afternoon!

Tori in Iguana Creek School already fundraised money before she arrived for a worthwhile project for the school. Her teaching buddy John thinks he has come up with a 'super-duper' plan for an amazing playground he has designed using his new found building skills in the jungle phase of the expedition.


He says, "They started on a playground already and it is just a few chopped down trees stuck in the ground. I've designed a playground of monkey bars, slides and climbing bits for the kids, which will be a fantastic extra way for me to help the school. With the fundraised money Tori has, we can get proper tools and materials and make it so it will stay there for a long time".

The pair have also been writing tests this week for their classes on Geometry and Maths.

Check back soon for more information about how our teachers are getting on in their teaching placements....

Meanwhile in fieldbase, preparation is already hotting up for our July project in Belize in the Chiquibul national park.